# How much of a state's revenue comes from optional taxes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516 "2016-03-29T13:38:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/1 "2016-03-29T13:38:33Z")
I’m thinking of things like vanity plates, cigarette/alcohol taxes, lottery tickets, hunting/fishing licenses. What percentage do they make up of a typical state’s income? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/2 "2016-03-29T14:32:34Z")
Depends on what you’re going to classify as “optional taxes”. For example, you’ve included excise on tobacco and alcohol products, presumably on the basis that buying these is a choice. But surely buying any grocery item is a choice? You don’t have to buy, say, milk any more than you have to buy beer; you can eliminate either or both of these from your diet. So are all value-added taxes/sales taxes on grocery items “optional taxes”? If additional fees for vanity plates are an optional tax, what about standard fees for standard plates? Nobody is required to own a car. If the country levies stamp duty on real estate transactions, as many countries do, are they optional taxes? Nobody is required to buy real estate; you can rent a home. And so forth. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/3 "2016-03-29T14:33:55Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Depends on what you’re going to classify as “optional taxes”. > > For example, you’ve included excise on tobacco and alcohol products, presumably on the basis that buying these is a choice. But surely buying any grocery item is a choice? You don’t have to buy, say, milk any more than you have to buy beer; you can eliminate either or both of these from your diet. So are all value-added taxes/sales taxes on grocery items “optional taxes”? If additional fees for vanity plates are an optional tax, what about standard fees for standard plates? Nobody is required to own a car. If the country levies stamp duty on real estate transactions, as many countries do, are they optional taxes? Nobody is required to buy real estate; you can rent a home. And so forth. In many states, grocery items like milk are not taxed at all. I know they aren’t in Maine. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/4 "2016-03-29T14:43:24Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > In many states, grocery items like milk are not taxed at all. I know they aren’t in Maine. But lots of countries have general sales taxes/value-added taxes. And whether they apply to groceries or not is beside the point. Nearly all purchases are optional; there are very few things you are legally required to buy. Nearly every purchase you make could have been substituted with a different purchase, or replaced with a decision not to purchase, but to save. So, to the extent that you do purchase items which attract any kind of excise, sales tax, value-added tax or the like, do you class all those taxes as “optional taxes”? And, if not, why is excise on beer an optional tax? And the same goes for a fee for a fishing licence. If that’s an optional tax, isn’t the fee for a driving licence also an optional tax? Both are licences which you get because you like to include those activities in your lifestyle, but in neither case are you _obliged_ to include those activities in your lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/5 "2016-03-29T15:55:01Z")
Here are the categories [Missouri uses (pdf) and the latest numbers](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdor.mo.gov%2Fpdf%2Ftaxesadm.pdf) Income tax = $7,463,060,672 or 48% of all revenues State sales tax = $3,430,314,960 or 22% Local sales and use taxes (the state collects and returns to local governments) = $3,134,151,262 or 20% Everything else combined (including property taxes, estate taxes and revenues from gambling) works out to about $1.5 billion or roughly 10% ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-states-revenue-comes-from-optional-taxes/750516/6 "2016-03-29T16:01:00Z")
Also in optional is the income tax. You don’t have to work – or work as much or for as high pay as you choose to do so.